Energy - the Gas Trade

Key points on global demand for and supply of gas are:

• Distribution of global gas reserves often coincides with that of oil due to the similar geological processes in its formation and conditions of accumulation.
• In terms of gas production, this has historically been located in countries and regions which had the market (industrial and domestic), infrastructure, and demand to use gas at or near the point of production; largely in electricity generation or domestic fuel supply (i.e. for cooking, heating), as gas was not easy to transport.
• The technology and infrastructure required to transport gas, through pipelines and as liquefied natural gas (LNG), has improved markedly in recent decades making the market for gas a global one, leading to rapidly rising gas production in countries with large reserves. Russia has become a key supplier of gas to eastern and central Europe since the 1990s by a continental network of gas pipelines, and Qatar is one of the world’s largest suppliers of LNG, shipped in bulk to countries such as the UK.
• Gas production, more than oil, is dominated by five countries: the USA, Russia, Qatar, Iran and Canada – which produce over half of the world’s natural gas.